A: Yes. Weblogs are something that all news organizations are struggling to deal with, and there are ongoing debates about how best to handle them. Some of the problems raised by weblogs are obvious, including concerns about liability for their content and credibility issues that could arise if a reporter used a personal web site to offer “opinions” or other extraneous material about the subjects of his news articles. 

Case in point: A writer at the Houston Chronicle was fired after his web site, which he created without permission using a pseudonym, included discussions about local politicians that he covered for the newspaper.

Although your existing personnel policies may cover freelancing and certain other issues relating to staff conduct outside of the work place, they may not address the issue of personal weblogs. 

With respect to personal weblogs and other Internet activity, any policy that you create should confirm that freelance work on the Internet will be treated in the same manner that other freelance work is treated. That is, if an employee must get permission to do any freelance work, he or she must also get permission before doing any freelance work (paid or unpaid) on the Internet.

Your policy should also make it clear that any personal web site may not state or suggest that the web site has any affiliation with the newspaper. You may want to require a disclaimer on the web site that it has no relationship with the news organization and that the content of the blog or site is the opinion of the weblogger or site operator only and does not represent the views of the organization.

Your policy should make it clear that anyone maintaining a personal weblog must do so on his or her own time and with his or her own computer (and other) equipment. No materials or equipment owned by the newspaper should be used in the creation or maintenance of any personal weblog. 

Finally, you may want to include some cautionary language regarding web sites in general, such as "any staff member who maintains a personal web site should act with caution. Any personal web site should not include content that negatively reflects on or impacts the newspaper."

You could also make it clear that an individual’s interests outside of the newspaper should not come into conflict with – or create the appearance of a conflict with – the staff member’s professional duties at the newspaper.

Even with the above safeguards, it probably goes without saying that there is no "guarantee" that you will be able to avoid lawsuits related to the weblog activities of staffers. For that reason, we strongly recommend that you discuss the specific language of your revised policy with your newspaper's attorney. He or she is likely to have more concrete recommendations about what should or must be included in your policy.